1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flow control nozzle and shutoff valve for selectively providing flow discharge patterns that include a solid-stream flow and a dispersed spray, and for preventing fluid flow through the unit.
2. Prior Art
While nozzle and valve structures of a variety of configurations have been proposed, the need has long remained for a flow control nozzle and shutoff valve unit that characteristically features a simple and inexpensive construction which can alternately provide choices among (1) a solid stream flow of fluid discharging or issuing from the unit, (2) a dispersed, spray-type discharge pattern for fluid that issues from the unit, and (3) a shutdown or cessation of fluid flow through the unit.
The use of rotatable flow control members carried by a housing of a nozzle and valve unit is known. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,893 issued May 16, 1967, to J. L. Rodgers et al, entitled SPRINKLER, discloses a device that utilizes a first rotatable flow control member that is carried within a housing for performing a valving function (i.e., to regulate the quantity of fluid flowing through the unit). The Rodgers device also utilizes a second rotatable flow control member that is carried by the housing at a location downstream from the first rotatable flow control member for performing a discharge control function (i.e., to provide a means of selecting from among a plurality of available discharge flow patterns for fluid issuing from the unit).
Prior proposals such as are exemplified by Rodgers et al result in units that characteristically feature a number of drawbacks. Such units are undesirably complex and expensive for use with outdoor water supply hoses, often referred to as "garden hoses," and do not provide durable, shock resistant structures that can withstand the usual type of relatively rough handling and dropping that is common in working with garden hose nozzles. Nor are such units well adapted to provide long-lived, reliable shutoffs for fluid flow that will function properly in the various environments of use of garden hoses which include exposures to winter weather as well as to the heat and ultraviolet radiation of summer sunshine. Moreover, the typically tortuous, significantly obstructed flow paths that such units define for the travel of fluid therethrough often undesirably diminishes the pressure at which fluid discharges from the outlets of the units.
A proposal for the use of a single rotatable fluid flow control member in a nozzle and valve unit to perform both a valving function and a discharge control function is presented by U.S. Pat. No. 676,526 issued June 18, 1901, to A. Anderson, entitled HOSE OR PIPE NOZZLE. The Anderson proposal utilizes a ball-shaped valve member that is carried by a housing and is rotatable selectively among three positions wherein the valve member cooperates with other structure to provide (1) a solid stream flow of fluid discharging or issuing from the unit, (2) a dispersed, spray-type discharge pattern for fluid that issues from the unit, or (3) a shutdown or cessation of fluid flow through the unit. Significant drawbacks of the Anderson proposal include the facts that (1) its implementation requires the provision of an expensively formed, ball-shaped valve member having a large number of entirely separate, elongate passages extending therethrough (each of the several passages must have ends that open through opposite faces of the valve member), and (2) the unit does not permit any of the passages to be reverse-flushed to clean away accumulated debris While the solid stream flow that the device produces is achieved by utilizing a single, relatively large diameter flow passage that should not be susceptible to clogging, the spray-type discharge of the device is achieved by utilizing a plurality of relatively small diameter flow passages, each of which is lengthy and is quite susceptible to clogging.
The concept of providing a flow control element at a location near one end of a flow passage, with the flow passage being reversible for flushing is known, a typical implementation thereof being the proposal of U.S. Pat. No. 3,116,882 issued Jan. 7, 1964, to W. D. Vork, entitled TURRET-NOZZLE FOR PAINT SPRAY GUNS. The Vork proposal provides a paint spray nozzle that is rotatably mounted such that the flow therethrough can be reversed in direction to effect reverse-flow cleaning of the nozzle passage. However, a drawback of proposals of this type is that the nozzle passages that they employ are not functional, when reverse-oriented, to provide discharge flow patterns that are useful other than to flush away accumulated debris. Certainly such proposals do not address the objective of providing a simple and inexpensive rotatable flow control element having a single through-passage for fluid flow that is provided with a screen-like formation, which passage is capable of being reverse-flow-flushed, and with the flow control element being cooperable with a housing in which it is mounted to provide choices among a solid stream flow of fluid discharging from the unit, a dispersed, spray-type discharge pattern for fluid that issues from the unit, and a shutdown or cessation of fluid flow through the unit.
3. The Referenced Patents and Applications
The referenced Parent Case included a full and complete disclosure of all of the features that form the subject matter of the invention claimed herein. The present case has been filed as a continuation-in-part principally to comply with the requirement of the patent law for "best mode" disclosure by making reference to and incorporating herein the teachings of the referenced Design Cases that depict what are now considered to be preferred embodiments for carrying out the practice of the present invention. Because the claims of the present case do not extend to subject matter that is beyond the scope of the disclosure of the Parent Case, it will be understood that (1) the filing date of the referenced Parent Case is applicable to the subject matter that is claimed herein, and (2) the incorporation herein of the subjects matter of the referenced Design Cases (and the presentation herein of six views of drawings that are essentially copied from the referenced Design Cases) has been done principally to comply with the requirement of the patent law that calls for including in a newly filed application the best mode known to the inventor at the time of filing of the application for carrying out the practice of the claimed invention.
While the product configurations that form the subjects matter of the referenced Design Cases are not essential to the practice of the present invention, such configurations do represent the preferred modes of practicing the invention. Thus, while there is a relationship between the present invention and the inventions of the referenced co-pending Design Cases, there is likewise a line of demarcation between their subject matter and the subject matter of the present case. Moreover, the subjects matter of the present case and that of the referenced cases is the work product of the same inventor.
The referenced Reversible Screen Patents disclose fluid control valves having screen-carrying sleeves connected to their outlets. Each of the sleeves has a flow passage formed through it. Opposite end regions of the flow passages are threaded so that either of the ends of the sleeves may be threaded onto a valve housing outlet. Each of the sleeves carries a concave-convex screen at a location midway along the length of its flow passage. Depending upon which end of the sleeve is threaded onto the outlet of a valve housing, the screen will be oriented to cause either convergence or divergence of the flow of fluid passing through the sleeve. These patents have relevance to the extent that the basic types of concave-convex screens they disclose can be mounted in rotatable valving members and used in one form of practice of the present invention, as was described in the referenced Parent Case, and as is described herein.